NLC submits testimony supporting Local Jobs Act
Cities’ fiscal conditions indicate the need for greater federal investment in local jobs, according to testimony submitted Thursday by the Washington-based National League of Cities (NLC) that urges Congress to pass the Local Jobs for America Act (LJAA). LJAA would direct $100 billion to assist in saving and creating jobs in both public and private sectors on the local level.
NLC President and Riverside, Calif., Mayor Ronald Loveridge submitted the testimony to the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The municipal sector likely faces a combined, estimated budget shortfall between $56 billion and $83 billion from 2010-2012, Loveridge says in the testimony. “While the federal economy may be approaching the late stages of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, local government budget tightening and spending cuts over the next several years will continue and may drag our nation’s economic recovery,” Loveridge says.
Many cities have had to implement layoffs, service cutbacks, and, in some cases, increase fees and taxes to compensate for the shrinking revenue, Loveridge says. “The vast majority of city fiscal officers report spending cuts in 2009 and expect further reductions in 2010 that will result in layoffs, delayed or canceled infrastructure projects, or cuts to public safety, libraries, parks and other municipal services,” Loveridge says. “As the brunt of the economic crisis is faced by cities over the next 18 to 24 months, these sorts of responses will continue — and likely spread.”
View the rest of Loveridge’s testimony.